


I Thought You Had to Be in Love

by StrangerWriter



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: El is sassy, Hopper being a dad, Jopper, ch 2 has some smut if thats what you are here for, its fluff, mentions of mileven, unconventional sex talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 00:16:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangerWriter/pseuds/StrangerWriter
Summary: Hopper has been spending a lot more overnights at the Byers’ house. When Will and El hear something suspicious one night, El confronts Hopper with a question.





	1. Chapter 1

“Will!” El hissed from his open bedroom doorway. She was just coming back to bed after going to the bathroom. “Come here.”

“What is it?” he asked from his spot on his bed.

“Just come here,” she whispered back, motioning with her hands. Will joined her in the hallway outside of Joyce’s closed bedroom door. “Shh,” El warned him because she knew they probably weren’t supposed to be spying like this.

Will heard his mom and Hopper’s voices, and then he realized that it sounded like they were both very obviously enjoying themselves.

Will’s eyes went wide when he understood what they were listening to. “Oh my god, El!” he groaned, immediately grabbing El’s hand to drag her back to his bedroom.  He closed his door carefully, so it wouldn’t make any noise and leaned up against it, putting his head in his hands.

El sat down on his bed giggling, not nearly as traumatized as Will was. “Do you think they were…” El asked, raising her eyebrows.

It took Will a minute to answer because he did not want to admit that was indeed what they had heard. It was even worse because he thought that he could still hear them now, even through two closed doors! He wasn’t sure if it was just his mind replaying it over and over in his head or if it was actually real.

“Yes…definitely,” Will finally replied.

“Seriously?” El had to ask because she didn’t think their parents would ever actually get together, even though it was so obvious to her that they really liked each other, and probably more.

“Ugh,” Will groaned. “What else could it have been?” He realized now that El had been spending the night a lot more than she used to and that Joyce and Hopper always seemed to have an excuse as to why Hopper had to spend the night also.

“Wait, so do you think they are like together-together?!” El wondered excitedly.

“I don’t know…they’re probably just doing… _that,_ ” Will answered. He didn’t see his mom and Hopper in any kind of serious relationship; they were friends, and Will didn’t think they would ever be more.

“I thought you kind of had to be like in love to do that with someone, right?” El asked innocently.

“Well…I mean, I guess you should be. But it’s not always like that,” Will tried to explain.

“Oh,” El answered, sounding sad.

“I can’t believe we heard that,” Will moaned again, rejoining her on the bed. He laid down and covered his face with his hands, as if he could block out the memories. “Can we please never talk about this again?” he mumbled.

El laughed because she didn’t see what Will was so upset about, but she agreed anyway.

In the morning, El studied Hopper and Joyce interacting with each other, but nothing seemed any different than any other day. They all said goodbye just like normal, and Hopper took El home. She had kept quiet about it all day, but she couldn’t last much longer.

That night at dinner, Hopper watched her smush the mushy peas on her plate, and shove around the potatoes that she normally liked, until he finally had to say something.

“Alright, you’ve been weird today. What’s going on?”

“What?” El asked, looking up at him, surprised.

He nodded at her plate. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Oh, uh, yes. I’m fine,” El excused.

“Did something happen with Will?” He only asked because she’d been acting different since that morning.

El shook her head no.

“If something’s going on, you can tell me, kid,” he pressed. He tried to make it so that El didn’t feel like she had to keep secrets from him anymore, which sometimes led to conversations that he didn’t want to have. Much like where this one would be going in just a few moments.

“Well, it’s just that…” El sighed and looked back down to the table.

He stayed quiet, waiting for her to go on.

“I thought,” El stopped and sighed again. It took a second before she took a breath and gathered the courage to blurt out the next sentence. “I thought you had to be in love to have sex.”

Hopper set his fork down, completely surprised by the words that just came out of her mouth. This was not what he had been expecting to hear.

El glanced up at him for a second, and then back to her dinner plate.

“Did Mike ask you to…” Hopper finally managed to ask, already counting down the number of minutes it would take for him to get to the kid’s house.

“What? No,” El answered immediately. “And besides, I _do_ love him,” she added casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

Hopper took a breath and did his best to attempt to ignore that little statement. “Okay, then what brought this on?”

“You and Joyce,” El said softly.

“What?” Hopper asked, his breath rushing out of him.

“Well, we kind of heard you guys last night,” El explained.

“Oh, uhm, I’m not sure what you thought you heard but we weren’t, uh,” he stammered.

El looked up and met his eyes, silently telling him that she wasn’t an idiot, and so he stopped.

“I’m- sorry that you heard that,” he finally said instead.

El shrugged. “But Joyce isn’t your girlfriend?” she asked, because this still didn’t make sense to her.

Hopper sighed. “Kid, it’s complicated.”

“But why? Mike is my boyfriend and I love him, and someday we will have sex,” El explained as if those were all just simple facts.

Hopper pushed his chair back and crossed the room to the fridge. He opened a second can of beer and stood in the corner of the kitchen for a moment. He finally decided that it would be best if he chose not to address El’s last comments.

“Things just get a little more complicated than that when you get older, alright?”

El didn’t reply, and he hoped she would get the hint and drop it.

“So you are just using Joyce for sex?” El asked quietly when he sat back down at the table.

“El,” he spoke softly, but sternly. “That’s a very inappropriate thing for you to say.” El knew that it was, and she had regretted it right after she said it. “And honestly, it’s not really any of your business.”

“Then why is what me and Mike do any of your business?” she asked with a certain edge of sass. Sometimes she had a hard time stopping her mouth.

Hopper groaned, sensing that this conversation was heading to a bad place, and yet, he couldn’t stop himself from arguing with her either.

“Because you are children,” he told her, shaking his head.

“At least we aren’t stupid,” El mumbled.

“What?”

El wasn’t sure whether or not she should repeat herself, but she wanted Hopper to know that she thought he was being dumb, so against her better judgement, she enunciated very clearly, “You are being stupid.” Before Hopper even had a chance to contemplate how to respond, El continued. “So what, you and Joyce just have sex with each other because it’s the easy, good part of being in a relationship with someone? Because you don’t want to deal with anything serious, anything that’s hard, or _complicated_ ,” she added, mocking his own words.

Hopper had to take a moment to breathe. Was his own kid really trying to call him out like this right now?

“I think I need to remind you, we’ve both been married before. I think we understand that relationships can be hard. I don’t need a naïve, 14 year old little girl to tell me that.” He paused and then decided, “You need to go to your room.”

Tears brimmed in El’s eyes, and she shoved her chair back. She sniffled as she stormed to her room, rattling the dishes on the shelf when her door slammed shut.

Hopper put his head in his hands and sighed out of frustration. What pissed him off the most, was the fact that the kid wasn’t really that far from the truth. Though he and Joyce never explicitly talked about it, they did have a sort of agreement with each other that involved not delving into anything serious, though he knew that was total bullshit anyway. The two of them had put themselves in life threatening situations for each other, and he knew they’d do it again and again if they had to. You couldn’t get much more serious than that.

He went outside to the front porch and smoked cigarette after cigarette, trying to decide what he should do next. He knew that he would have to tell Joyce; he just wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to tell her. With a sigh, Hopper went back inside and picked up the phone.

Joyce’s voice came over the line. “Hello?”

“Hey Joyce, can I come over for a minute?”

“Yeah, of course. Is everything okay?”

“Uh yeah. Yeah, it’s fine. I just- I’ll be over soon, alright?”

“Sure,” Joyce replied cautiously. While Hopper said he was fine, he didn’t sound fine. And they hadn’t planned on seeing each other tonight. They usually only spent Fridays and Saturdays together, with an accidental Wednesday thrown in there one time.

The sex had kind of started off as a slightly drunken accident a few weeks ago, that neither of them decided like they needed to stop. It was a nice escape from everything else, and besides, they both used their kids as an excuse to see each other because they enjoyed spending time together too.

Hopper went back inside to grab his keys. El’s bedroom door was still shut, and he didn’t bother telling her that he was leaving.

When he got to Joyce’s house, she was already at the door, as if she were waiting for bad news. Hopper peered inside and saw Will sitting in the living room.

“Can you come talk out here for a minute?” he asked, nodding to the front porch.

“…Okay,” Joyce answered, closing the front door. Hopper stepped over to the bench on her porch, and they both sat down. “What is it?” Joyce asked, when he didn’t immediately start talking.

“So the kids apparently heard some things last night,” he started.

Joyce scrunched her face up and put it in her hands, immediately understanding what he meant. And while she didn’t know it, her reaction was almost the same as Will’s had been.

“Really?” she groaned.

“Yep.”

“And you know this how?” Joyce asked.

“Oh…” he sighed heavily. “Just had a wonderful conversation with El.”

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry,” Joyce laughed, not yet knowing the full extent of that talk. “Will didn’t say anything to me.”

“No. And he probably never would because he’s a normal kid,” Hopper agreed in response. “My child on the other hand, wants to know why we are having sex if we aren’t in love.”

“Did she really ask you that?” Joyce asked quietly.

Hopper only nodded in confirmation.

“Well, what did you tell her?”

“Just that it was complicated,” he sighed, briefly eyeing Joyce before looking back out to the yard. “And then we got into a fight,” Hopper added.

“About?”

“She thinks I’m using you for sex.” He paused before he had to ask, “You don’t think that, do you?”

Joyce shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, we are both kind of doing that, aren’t we?” she admitted.

Hopper felt something inside of him starting to ache. **_This_** _, this was why they didn’t need to talk about these things out loud._ He didn’t want to feel like this right now, and hell, he never wanted Joyce to feel like that. Did she actually believe that?

“I guess we didn’t set the best example,” Joyce added when Hopper didn’t say anything.

“So what then, it’s just over?” Hopper managed to choke out, though he tried his best to sound indifferent.

It didn’t work, and Joyce turned to look at him, surprised by how emotional he had sounded. “I don’t know, Hop,” she sighed. “The kids are teenagers now. They talk. _People_ talk,” Joyce continued.

“Pretty sure the entire town already thinks we are sleeping together,” Hopper mused, pulling out a cigarette.

Joyce rolled her eyes and laughed because he wasn’t wrong. Those rumors had been going around since Will disappeared. Hopper took a long drag on his cigarette and passed it to her. She copied, being careful to pinch the end so she didn’t end up with a mouth full of tobacco. She’d been getting quite used to sharing his cigarettes lately.

Joyce handed it back to him and leaned back on the bench. Hopper pulled his arm from between them, resting it behind her, and Joyce subconsciously moved in closer to him.

Though he didn’t want to admit it, Hopper had thought a lot about what El had said.

He looked down at Joyce, her head now resting against his chest, and he realized that he had to do it, or else he really was _stupid._

“So, uh, what are you doing Wednesday night?”

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Joyce laughed softly.

Hopper casually shrugged. “Maybe…”

Joyce looked up at him and smiled, so Hopper relaxed a little before he went on. “The way I see it, we have two options. We pretend this was nothing and go back to our shitty, lonely lives. Or we do it right.”

“Hop, I don’t know,” Joyce exhaled. There was too much to think about, and she wasn’t prepared for this.

“Joyce, I’ve been really stupid, and I don’t want to lose you again.” He spoke with an honesty that surprised and scared her.

And she understood what the _again_ was referring to, though he didn’t explicitly say it. She’d heard it in all the times that he had told her that he ‘was happy for her,’ in her last relationship.

Joyce took the cigarette from his hand once more, and finally replied after a few minutes of thought. “I get off work at 7.”

“Pick you up at 8?” Hopper asked hopefully.

Joyce shook her head but couldn’t stop herself from smiling. She looked up at him and saw that he was smiling too. Their lips touched, and they kissed softly. Joyce finally allowed herself to feel something that she normally tried to keep away when they were together. 

“Yes. 8 o’clock,” she murmured in agreement once they pulled away. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes until their cigarette was finished. Hopper smashed it in the ashtray on the small table and sighed.

“Alright. I suppose I have to go home and apologize to El now. I hate it when she’s right,” he muttered under his breath.

Joyce smiled and laughed. Hopper and El were quite the headstrong pair, but they always seemed to work everything out eventually.

“I’ll see you Wednesday?” he nervously confirmed one last time.

“Yes, Wednesday,” she smiled.

They stood up and Joyce let out a small chuckle, suddenly feeling a little faint. _Must be the cigarette,_ she excused.

Her hair fell in front of her eyes, and Hopper couldn’t help but brush it away with his thumb. _God, she was gorgeous._

“It’s a date,” he replied with a smile.

When Hopper got home, El’s bedroom door was still shut, and their barely eaten dinner was still on the table.

Hopper approached her door and paused before knocking. “El, can I come in?”

She didn’t answer.

“Please kid, I want to talk to you.”

Still no response.

“Listen, I’m sorry, okay? Just let me in.” Her door cracked open under his hands, and he took that as a confirmation that he could enter.

El was laying on her bed, facing the opposite wall, so he sat down on the end of her bed next to her feet. She curled up a little more, so she wouldn’t accidentally touch him, still obviously upset.

“You were right,” he began when she didn’t start talking. “I was being stupid.” El didn’t move, so he added, “And I also wanted to tell you, I’m going on a date with Joyce on Wednesday.”

El sat up and pulled her knees up, resting her chin on them. “A sex date?” she asked.

“Uh, no,” Hopper stifled a laugh. _This damn kid._ “No, a real date. Because I want Joyce to be my girlfriend,” he added since those were El’s words from earlier.

“Where are you going?” she asked, her interest obviously piqued now. He could tell that she was still a little mad, but at least she was talking to him again.

“I don’t know yet. I was thinking you could help me out with that part,” he offered.

“You could go to the movies,” El suggested. That was where her and Mike usually went on real dates.

“I’m thinking we will just start with dinner somewhere,” Hopper said.

“You could take her to Benny’s and share a waffle tower!” El proposed excitedly, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

Hopper laughed. “What about somewhere sort of fancy? Maybe like Enzo's?”

El scrunched up her face, but replied, “I guess she’d like that.”

“Yeah?” Hopper smiled.

“Yeah,” El nodded in response. She sighed and unwrapped her legs. “I know I’m just a kid, and I’ve never been married, or anything, but I do know what love is,” she told him quietly, still feeling a little sensitive about what he had said to her earlier.

“I know, kid, I know. I shouldn’t have said that about you. I didn’t mean it. It’s just that you sometimes call me out on things that no one else does, and it makes me a little bit mad. Even if it’s true,” Hopper explained to her.

“A little bit mad?” El repeated, eyeing him.

“Okay, a lot mad.” He laughed, and so she did to. “But from now on, I will try to admit when I’m wrong. I’m working on that.”

“I was wrong too,” El apologized. “I understand that grown up relationships aren’t my business. I just want you to be happy. And I can tell that you make Joyce happy. She smiles more when you are with us,” El explained softly.

“She does, does she?” Hopper asked.

El nodded. “And I want her to be happy too. I love her.”

It took a moment, but then Hopper felt like he had to admit it out loud. “Me too, kid.”

“You do?” El moved over to him to give him a hug.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed. “Just don’t tell _her_ that yet, alright?” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

“I already know that she loves you too,” El whispered. “I mean, I know you said it’s complicated, but I don’t really think that part is,” she shrugged.

El’s stomach growled loudly, and Hopper suddenly felt like the worst parent for making her go to bed earlier without eating. Not that his own parents didn’t enforce that kind of punishment on him, but he thought that making a kid go hungry was a terrible way to punish them, and it wasn’t what he had intended earlier that night.

“Want to go get a waffle tower?”

El pulled back and looked up at him. “Really?”

“Yeah, sure. Our dinner wasn’t that great a few hours ago, and I can’t imagine it’s gotten any better,” he laughed.

El hugged him once more, and Hopper wondered if there would ever come a day when waffles wouldn’t make everything better.


	2. Chapter 2

At 6:30 Wednesday night, El forced Hopper into the bathroom to change his clothes. She wanted to see what he was planning to wear on his date.

After a few minutes, Hopper stepped out in dark pants, a tan belt, and a navy blue button up t-shirt that had a light green leaf pattern on it. El eyed him up and down, and while she didn’t say anything, he could tell from her expression that she didn’t approve.

“What,” Hopper asked, throwing his hands up in the air. “What’s wrong with it?”

El raised her eyebrows. “You can’t wear this shirt,” she explained, touching the sleeve.

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” he sighed.

El just shook her head and approached his small dresser, searching through the drawers. She threw out a black shirt and a lighter blue jacket to go over it. “Maybe try this instead.” El handed him the clothes, and he went back into the bathroom.

This time she smiled when he reappeared. “Much better.”

“But these are all wrinkled, and I’ll have to iron them,” Hopper complained. He didn’t see anything wrong with the other shirt.

El gave him a look and said, “Then iron them.”

Hopper rolled his eyes, but he trusted that El had a better idea of today’s fashion, so he hauled out the ironing board. It turns out, ironing was a good distraction to take his mind off things anyway. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was nervous to take Joyce out on a date. He knew it was totally stupid; they’d eaten dinner together many times, and there was no reason this should be any different. But he felt like it was.

Plus, he’d nearly forgotten how to be romantic, and _this was Joyce Byers_ \- the girl he’d shared cigarettes under the stairs with since they were 15. If he could go back in time and tell himself what the next 25 years of his life were going to look like, he knew that his 15 year old self wouldn’t have believed a word of it.

Back at the Byers’ house, Joyce rushed home from work to change her clothes. She ran a few fingers through her hair and looked at herself in the mirror. She knew that she looked tired and less than pretty, so she plugged in her curling iron and hoped she could quickly give her hair some life, if not anything else.

She slipped into a simple black dress with navy trim and buckled the matching belt around her waist while she waited for the curling iron to warm up. She washed her face, fixed her hair, and put a light amount of makeup on, settling for at least looking better than she had 30 minutes ago. Just as she was putting on the backs of her earrings, Will yelled, “Mom, your date is here!”

Joyce took a final quick look at herself and headed for the front door. El came running in, beaming like a proud parent when she saw Joyce. She ran past Will and straight to her to give her a hug.

“Hey sweetie.” Joyce had to laugh at El’s enthusiasm.

“You look so pretty!” El told her smiling. Hopper was a few seconds behind El, but Joyce saw him leaning against the open front door when El finally let go. She felt a nervous hitch in her stomach when she saw him but managed a smile anyway. “ _He_ wanted to wear a shirt with leaves on it!” El revealed with a groan, motioning back to Hopper.

“Okay. Thanks for that, kid.” Hopper shook his head, and the two girls giggled.

Joyce stepped behind Will and kissed his head. “There’s money on the table for pizza when it gets here. Don’t open the door for anyone else,” she warned him sternly.

“I know, I know,” Will griped. Joyce would never stop worrying about having to leave him alone.

“Okay, have fun,” she called, approaching Hopper at the front door.

“Hey,” he said with a nervous smile.

“Hey,” Joyce smiled back stepping out on to the front porch.

Hopper grabbed the door behind them but turned around once more to eye El. “Behave,” he warned.

El rolled her eyes and ignored him, shouting another annoyed goodbye.

Hopper shook his head and closed the door.

“You uh, you look really beautiful,” he complimented, following Joyce off the front porch. He placed his hand on her lower back as they walked to his car. Joyce felt a blush creep up her cheeks.

Hopper hadn’t just meant tonight, but it felt weird to tell her something like that out loud. He realized how utterly ridiculous it was for him to be shy about telling her that she was beautiful when just a few nights ago, he’d explored pretty much every part of her naked body with his hands. And yet, here he was still feeling awkward about a simple night out.

Joyce flashed a quick, shy smile. “Thank you,” she replied quietly. “You look nice too.”

“Better than a shirt with leaves on it I guess.” Hopper laughed, and Joyce did too, feeling some of the nervous tension falling away.

They got in the car and the pair sat in silence for a minute while they drove. “So uh, how was work?” Hopper questioned.

“Oh, you know. Just your normal every day,” Joyce replied. “But I’ve come to realize that I kind of like it boring,” she shrugged. “How was your day?” she asked in return.

“Pretty much the same. Boring can be good,” he agreed, knowing exactly what she meant.

Another silence ensued, and Hopper racked his brain- _What kinds of things did he used to talk about on dates? What did he used to talk about with Joyce before all of this?_ Oh right, Demogorgons, missing kids, breaking and entering…you know, usual stuff.

While the silence stressed him out, Joyce didn’t appear to mind. They arrived at the restaurant and parked the car. Just as Joyce was reaching for her door handle, Hopper stopped her.

“Joyce,” he said.

She turned back towards him. “Yes?”

He was going to tell her something, but his nerves got the best of him. “Wait a minute,” he said instead, getting out of the car. He walked around the front and opened her door for her.

She giggled and grabbed his hand that he offered to her. “Such a gentleman,” she smiled, sliding her hand through the crook of his arm.

“I try,” he smirked.

Inside the restaurant, they were seated immediately at a table for two. Bread arrived quickly, and their waiter took their drink orders.

Hopper let out a sigh. “Alright…I um, I feel like I have to tell you this now. I’m- um,” he paused. “This is sort of weird for me,” he eventually finished.

She let out a breath and a small laugh. “Me too,” she confessed softly, nodding.

“Okay,” he exhaled, feeling a little bit better knowing that he wasn’t alone in this. Joyce however, managed to hide it well, while he was sure that he didn’t. “I honestly think the Wheeler kid manages dating and being romantic better than I do,” he disclosed with the shake of his head at being bested by a 14 year old.

Joyce threw her head back and gave a genuine laugh. “They are pretty cute, aren’t they?”

Hopper shook his head again but smiled at her anyway. “Cute isn’t what I would call them, but sure.” He sighed, starting to feel better already. “By the way, if you didn’t already know, El’s in love with Mike and someday they’re going to sleep together,” he went on. Joyce raised her eyebrows at him, but still had a smile pressed on her closed lips. “That’s something new I had the pleasure of hearing come out of her mouth the other night,” he added with a hard exhale.

“Oh geez. Well…she certainly has no problem with honesty,” Joyce told him, shrugging her shoulders.

Soon their drinks arrived, and they both had a slight buzz. Conversation seemed to flow freely once they both managed to let go of their anxieties.

A few hours later, Hopper and Joyce reentered her house holding hands and laughing.

“How was your date?” El asked, immediately jumping up from the couch.

“If I recall, we decided that our dates were none of each other’s business,” Hopper remarked with a smirk.

Joyce scowled and playfully hit his chest. “It was nice, sweetie. Thank you for asking,” Joyce answered anyway.

El turned around and looked at Will, urging him to follow through with their plan that they had thought of while the adults were out.

“So me and El were wondering if she could sleep over tonight,” Will asked, looking at his mom while El eyed Hopper hopefully.

When El saw that the likelihood of a sleepover was a good possibility, she added, “Well, _and_ if we could sleep outside in Castle Byers. Then it would be nice and quiet in here…” she suggested as innocently as possible, trying hard to sell their idea. Hopper shook his head at her insinuation, and Will looked mortified but didn’t add anything more.

“I don’t know guys... Isn’t it going to rain tonight?” Joyce wondered.

“No. We already checked,” El told them. “ _Pleeease_ ,” she begged.

Hopper and Joyce eyed each other, having a silent conversation. Hopper gave her the it’s-up-to-you look.

“Alright,” Joyce finally decided. “But if you get scared or too hot or anything, you guys both come back inside, okay?”

“We promise! Thank you!” El exclaimed, before they both took off to Will’s room to collect their supplies.

Hopper could sense Joyce’s nerves. He brought her in close to him. “They’ll be fine for one night,” he promised, stroking her arm.

“I know,” she sighed, knowing that it was the truth, though that probably wouldn’t stop her from worrying.

The two kids made a few trips outside before they came back in one last time to tell the adults goodnight. Hopper and Joyce were sitting on the couch together. He had one arm wrapped behind her and his other placed high up on her thigh over the fabric of her dress. He was speaking softly into Joyce’s ear, and El couldn’t make out what he was saying, but Joyce burst into laughter.

“Okay, we’re going outside now,” El interrupted, sitting down on the couch next to Hopper. She had changed into a pair of Will’s shorts, and Hopper realized that they both might as well start packing overnight bags. “I _told_ you she’s happy when you are around,” El added quietly once Joyce got up to talk to Will.

Hopper shook his head, but he realized that she was right. The two of them had spent the majority of the evening smiling and laughing. It was light and easier than he thought it would be.  

Hopper didn’t comment, but instead warned her softly just as he had earlier that night, “You two are going to behave?”

“Yes. Will you?” El sassed back playfully.

“Alright, go on,” Hopper replied, ruffling her hair. They stood up and El gave him a hug goodnight before her and Will ran out the front door.

Hopper and Joyce waited a little while before they went to her room, trying to make sure that the kids weren’t going to pop back inside for something they forgot.

They closed and locked her bedroom door, and Hopper sat down on the edge of her bed. He slipped his shoes off, while Joyce removed her earrings, laying them on her dresser. She climbed onto the bed next to him.

“Can you believe we are actually sort of alone?” Hopper murmured.

The sound of the crickets outside her window were suddenly incredibly loud, and Joyce stood back up. “I probably should close this. I would hate to subject those poor kids to anything else,” she explained, shaking her head.

“Wouldn’t be such a problem if you weren’t so vocal,” Hopper teased quietly, coming up behind her. He leaned in for a kiss.

“I don’t think I’m the only one to blame,” Joyce retaliated, smiling when she pulled away.

Hopper kissed her once more, running his hands through her soft hair. He pressed his body against hers, causing her to stumble backwards. The backs of her legs bumped into her bed, and he pushed her down so that she was laying with her legs hanging over the edge. He continued kissing her while his hand slid up her thigh, moving the hem of her dress with it. His hand moved between her legs, pressing them apart. Joyce shifted her hips and bent a knee, and Hopper moved her back slightly so that her foot could rest on the edge of the bed.

She whined a quiet complaint when his lips left hers, until she realized where he was headed. He shoved the rest of the fabric of her dress up, letting it gather on her waist and knelt down on the floor. Hopper wrapped a hand around the back of her thigh, forcing her legs to open further. Joyce couldn’t hold back a moan of anticipation when she felt his lips pressing kisses on the soft skin of her legs. The fingers of his other hand stroked her through her underwear before grabbing the edge, pulling them to the side.

Joyce’s hips writhed underneath him, silently begging him to touch her. Hopper teased her briefly with his thumb, but he couldn’t stand making her wait for too long. His tongue slid over her most sensitive spot, causing her to tremble. He dragged his tongue back and forth, and soon she couldn’t stop the soft, quiet pants from escaping her mouth.

He lifted her other leg up onto the bed, and his hand left its spot under her thigh. It hadn’t taken him but just a few nights of being with her to learn that she liked to be penetrated when she came, and in those same first few nights, he learned exactly what spots could make her orgasm in a matter of minutes.

Joyce wasn’t sure how he did it; she didn’t remember sex with Lonnie, or really anyone, ever being this pleasurable.

A loud moan slipped out of her mouth when she felt his index finger slide inside her already wet opening. She put a hand behind her knee to give him better access, gripping her own skin tightly when she felt a second finger enter her.

Joyce’s breath came faster and faster until she abruptly pulled back, sitting up to push his shoulders away, panting. Hopper stood up and leaned over her, forcing her back down against the bed with a kiss.

“It’s okay,” he whispered to her softly, sensing that she was trying to prevent her impending finish. Joyce finally managed to open her eyes to give him a look that said she didn’t agree. Sure, she so badly wanted to finish, but this was their one chance to be alone, and she wanted it to last.

Hopper repositioned his hands down the front of her underwear, the pad of his thumb replacing where his mouth left off. His fingers pumped in and out of her, and it only took maybe 30 seconds for her to end up where she had been a minute ago. Joyce’s hand slipped under his shirt, digging her fingers into his back, trying to hold back. “It’s okay,” Hopper murmured to her again with a small laugh at how hard she was trying to contain it.

Joyce couldn’t take it any longer. “Mmm, fuck,” she swore, arching her back and trembling, letting out something between a cry and a moan. His fingers stilled, moving only his fingertips back and forth slowly inside, while his thumb rubbed her softly until the trembling stopped.

Joyce squirmed underneath him. “Can you help me get this off?” she asked, attempting to reach the back zipper of her dress. The fabric suddenly felt too hot and constricting. Hopper sat up on the edge of the bed and unzipped the back before Joyce stood up, letting it slide off her hips. She walked back over to him, standing between his legs and bent down to kiss him, whispering a thank you as the cool air hit her skin.

Hopper hugged her to him and kissed each of the four perfectly placed freckles on the swell of her breasts. Joyce slid her hands behind his head and forced him to look up at her. She planted a leg on either side of him and climbed on top, straddling his lap. “Is it wrong that I still kind of need to have sex with you?” she breathed. Hopper laughed, and she stripped his shirt off.

“It’s only our first date Ma’am,” he gasped in faux shock.

“Oh. Well, I’m terribly sorry Sir.” Her hands trailed to his belt buckle, yanking it open. “But I promise I won’t tell anybody if you don’t,” she vowed with a naughty smile.

A little over a half an hour later they collapsed to the bed, both feeling more than completely satisfied.

Joyce snuggled up in Hopper’s arms, and he kissed her forehead.

“What time do you have to be to work tomorrow?” he asked, coming back to reality.

“10. You?”

“9. But you know, it’s more like whenever I show up,” Hopper shrugged.

“Either way, we need sleep,” Joyce said eyeing the clock. It was already after one AM. “I had a really wonderful time tonight,” she sighed, enjoying the feeling of Hopper’s fingers lightly stroking her hair.

“Me too. Do you want to do it again sometime?”

“A date or this?”

Hopper smiled. “Date…but this too.”

“I do,” she paused. “Are we like…” She looked for the right word. “Official now?”

 “I don’t think we have to _be_ anything,” Hopper told her, knowing how scary of a thing that was for the both of them. “But I will say, I’d be pretty upset if you started seeing someone else.”

“I don’t think you ever have to worry about that,” Joyce promised, looking up at him with a look that made his heart race.

They kissed once more, and he managed to whisper, “Okay. Good.” It took him a moment to gather the courage to say, “I really care about you Joyce.”

 _Care._ It wasn’t the word that he wanted to use, but it would be enough for now. It was enough to keep their relationship comfortable and maybe uncomplicated.

“I really care about you too,” Joyce confided, hugging him just a little bit tighter.

With that out of the way, they both laid back and tried to get some sleep.

However, after another half an hour, Joyce picked her head up off Hopper’s chest, looking up at him.

“Are you asleep?” She whispered softly just in case he was.

He opened his eyes. “No, you?” he smirked.  She laid her head back down against him. “Thinking about the kids?” he guessed.

“I just really want to go check on them. I mean, I’m sure they are fine but-“

He understood what she meant, and it was probably one of the reasons why he wasn’t asleep yet either. He released her from his arms and got up, pulling his pants on.

“I’m coming with,” she said, searching through her dresser drawer for some pajamas. She knew she would never be able to sleep unless she saw for herself that they were okay.

The two of them got mostly dressed and snuck outside, creeping up quietly on Castle Byers. There was a small bit of light shining through the cracks in the log walls, so they stood close and quiet, waiting to see if they could hear the kids talking. Hopper could sense Joyce’s rising panic at the silence.

“They’re probably just asleep,” he whispered, though he pulled back the curtain on the front door to check anyway.

Joyce let out a sigh when she saw that he was right.

Their sleeping area wasn’t that big, so the two kids were almost cuddled together, sharing a blanket. Their faces were close to each other, as if they fell asleep mid conversation.

“Think we should turn the light off?” Hopper asked.

“No, no. They’ll know we came out here to check on them.”

“Oh right.”

“They look so precious when they sleep,” Joyce smiled. “I’m so glad they have each other.”

“You know, I just thought of something,” Hopper paused. “What if Wheeler is just a well thought out ruse to distract us from the _real_ relationship,” he murmured, motioning between El and Will.

Hopper seriously pondered that thought for a minute until Joyce patted his back and said, “I _think_ what we need is less sex and more sleep.”

“Yeah,” he sighed with a laugh. “Yeah, probably.”


End file.
